There is possibly no more maligned part of any newspaper, especially among those who work in journalism, than the streeter.

For those who aren鈥檛 familiar, streeters are what appear on page 9 of every edition of Wednesday鈥檚 Yellowknifer. Our reporter Emelie Peacock goes out to find six people willing to answer a question such as, 鈥淲hat is your favourite Canadian book?鈥� or 鈥淲hat is the best thing you鈥檝e ever found at a garage sale?鈥� Sometimes the questions are topical, sometimes they are frivolous.

Maybe it鈥檚 because the work itself can be challenging and a bit undignified -- standing on a street corner, looking for passerby willing to lend their name and face to the answer of some idle question. Maybe it鈥檚 because the result usually isn鈥檛 important, society changing, award winning in any way -- streeters are fairly inconsequential work, at least in comparison to breaking or investigative news.

Probably the most infamous streeter to ever come from a 快盈v3 News Services paper was printed in a August 2015 edition of Nunavut News/North. The question was, 鈥淔irefighters in training, what attracted you to firefighting?鈥�

Gary Tinashlu very honestly answered, 鈥淲hen I was a child I burned down a few houses and that made me interested in learning about fire services.鈥�

This answer has made the rounds on social media more than once, and why not? It really is good to see Gary has transformed his childhood pyromania into a constructive career.

Sometimes Yellowknifer will collect streeters to gauge public opinion about headline stories. In September 2015, it was the eve of the city鈥檚 vote on whether to purchase the 50/50 lot downtown. One of my first assignments at Yellowknifer -- on top of covering the municipal services committee debate and consequent vote on the issue -- was to get a streeter of whether or not the city should make the purchase. The streeter never ran but the exercise of hanging out downtown chatting with people about the issue contributed to my reporting and helped me get a better sense of what the community felt.

Going through the Yellowknifer archives last week, I found a couple streeters from a 1974 edition of that paper that garnered what 快盈v3ers thought southerners knew about the North, and in the next edition, reflected a few actual southern views back up to the city.

In the Feb. 21, 1974 edition of the paper, Yellowknifer asked, 鈥淲hat do you think southerners know about the NWT?鈥�

Pat Balsillie answered, 鈥淪eventy-five per cent of them don鈥檛 even know where it is.鈥�

Wanda Anderson didn鈥檛 have much more faith: 鈥淣othing. There isn鈥檛 enough information distributed in the south.鈥�

Patty McKim offered a similar opinion: 鈥淣othing. They still think we鈥檙e part of the Yukon.鈥�

(As an aside, I have found many southern Canadians assume I鈥檓 in the Yukon when I say I live in Yellowknife.)

A couple weeks later, former Yellowknifer reporter Bill Braden took some time to ask people what they knew about Yellowknife while on a visit to his hometown of Rosthern, Sask.

The answers were interesting.

Russell Kenney said he鈥檇 actually been to Yellowknife himself once: 鈥淪aw the beer parlour,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t seemed to be doing a good business.鈥�

Peter Dereverzoff expressed curiosity about the North: 鈥淚鈥檇 like to know more about the place,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd visit it.鈥�

Chas Fast acknowledged the North was, at the time, starting to capture the imaginations of southerners: 鈥淚t鈥檚 the coming thing, the 快盈v3 part of Canada. Everybody seems to be going North.鈥�

This pair of streeters are interesting because they show a stark contrast between what 快盈v3ers think of their southern counterparts and what is actually the case, at least as evidenced by this tiny sample size out of Saskatchewan.

The role of a newspaper goes much, much further than what a streeter provides 鈥� basically an unscientific poll of opinions on topics big and small. But streeters do perform an important function -- they give reporters a chance to chat with people on the street about issues of the day. It鈥檚 an important exercise, if admittedly a bit frustrating, depending on how many people are game to chat.

They also give the average citizen the chance to sound off on these issues, if they are in the right place at the right time. Once in print, streeters give readers the chance to know their fellow community members, whether through learning their favourite books or how they feel about community issues.